WASHINGTON: The US on Monday (March 4) condemned the sentencing of an Iranian singer who received a Grammy award in 2023 for a tune that turned an anthem for mass Iranian protests after the dying of Mahsa Amin whereas within the custody of the morality police.
Iranian singer and songwriter Shervin Hajipour mentioned on his Instagram account final week that he had been sentenced to greater than three years in jail. He was convicted for incitement and provocation of individuals to disturb nationwide safety via his music, native rights advocates famous.
Hajipour, 26, wrote and printed the tune “Baraye” following the dying in police custody of Amini, a younger lady from Iranian Kurdistan.
US first girl Jill Biden described the tune as a “highly effective and poetic name for freedom and girls’s rights” when she offered him final yr with the first-ever tune for social change Grammy award for “Baraye.” A tune “can finally change the world,” she mentioned on the time.
“We condemn the years lengthy jail sentence for Shervin Hajipour,” US State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller instructed reporters in a press briefing on Monday.
“The Iranian authorities’s actions are simply one other sign of their intent to crackdown on freedom of expression and repress voices inside their very own society at any time when attainable.”
Amini, 22, was arrested in Tehran in 2022 for “unsuitable apparel” by the morality police. Her dying in police custody sparked big protests in Iran and by Iranians in different components of the world. The unrest spiraled into the most important present of opposition to Iran’s authorities in years.
